If you follow me on Instagram, you noticed back in February that I attended a knitting class hosted by the Indie Craft Parade. I have picked up knitting on and off again but never made anything of importance. After seeing all the cool things Kristen and Anna have been knitting this winter, I was motivated to try again. I decided to take the class  so I could learn the basics (again) from someone who knows her stuff. Plus it was at a tea shop so I couldn’t pass that up. 🙂 Deb, who taught the class, was so nice. She runs a farm where she raises sheep, shears the sheep, spins and dyes the wool, and then sells that wool. I love supporting local people like this! In the class we made a coffee cup cozy with some of her handspun yarn. She also provided us with these cool wooden needles that I just love!

I so enjoyed myself that while I was at the class, I bought of skein of her yarn. I wanted to make a cowl with it and wasn’t sure I had quite enough but decided to go ahead and give it a try. I used the moss stitch (knit 1, purl 1 with an odd number off cast-on stitches), cast on 19 stitches, and began knitting. I enjoyed working with this yarn. It was so soft  and squishy to knit with. It was also the perfect project to work on at night after the kids went to bed and I wanted some down time to relax and maybe watch a little tv. I have such texture issues that I can’t stand knitting with cheap acrylic yarn, but my sensitive skin breaks out when I come near really itchy 100% wool yarn so this merino wool yarn was a very happy medium.

We have had some beautiful weather recently, so I was afraid that I wouldn’t get to wear this cowl until next winter, but I finished it just in time to wear it yesterday during our rainy, yucky, cold day. At least wearing a cute cowl and my rain boots made the day seem a little brighter! The cowl finished up at a good length. It only wraps around once but I like how it lays nice and bulky against my neck. Of course my boys also liked it and were pulling on it so now it’s a bit stretched out. I really should try blocking it, but I’ve never done that before. Any words of wisdom on how to block and what to use?

I’m probably done knitting until next winter but I am glad I actually finished a project for once. Also now that I know I can do something that looks good, I might attempt a harder project next time. Maybe I’ll try to learn circular needles so I can make some cute hats for the boys. I love these that Anna made from the Purl Bee’s free tutorial.